Governor’s PAC targets Senate Democratic leader
TV ad campaign attacks Michael Sanchez over crime
SANTA FE — It’s rare to see TV ads on New Mexico legislative races, but a hotly contested race featuring top Senate Democrat Michael Sanchez is hitting prime time airwaves this week — at an eye-opening cost.
A pro-Republican Super PAC run by Gov. Susana Martinez’s political adviser, Jay McCleskey, has signed off on more than $241,000 so far on TV ads, including a spot launched this week that features the mothers of victims of high-profile violent acts discussing their lobbying efforts for increased criminal penalties.
Some of those measures have stalled in recent years in the Senate — a few have passed — and both victims’ family members and the Governor’s Office have singled out Sanchez for bottling up the bills in the Democraticcontrolled chamber.
At one point during the ad, Nicole Chavez, the mother of Jaydon Chavez-Silver, who was killed in a June 2015 drive-by shooting while attending an Albuquerque house party, accuses Sanchez of “cradling those criminals” and lacking empathy and understanding.
It also features Veronica Garcia, the mother of 4-year old Lilly Garcia, who was killed in October 2015 in an alleged case of road rage, calling the state’s current criminal laws “ridiculous.”
Sanchez is fighting back with a TV ad of his own that features him and his wife, Lynn, discussing their roots in Valencia County and his legislative accomplishments, including the creation of the state’s lottery scholarship program.
“Michael has always wanted to help people; that’s just the way he is,” his wife says at one point during the 30-second spot.
Sanchez’s re-election campaign says it has spent $120,000 on the ad, which is scheduled to run through Election Day.
A Belen Democrat, Sanchez has served in the Senate since 1993 and is the majority floor leader. As such, he has the authority to decide which bills get voted on by the full Senate, and in what order. However, he does not have unchecked power to assign bills to committees for vetting.
His opponent in the Nov. 8 general election is Republican Greg Baca of Belen, a lawyer and Gulf War veteran, who is a political newcomer.
Baca said Tuesday he’s tried to run a positive race and hasn’t turned to negative campaigning. As for the barrage of TV ads, Baca said, “I’m not affiliated with them at all.”
Longtime New Mexico political observer Brian Sanderoff, the president of Research & Polling Inc., said it’s rare, but not unprecedented, for political TV ads to be launched in state legislative races.
He said TV ads tend to be an inefficient form of campaigning in legislative races because roughly 97 percent of viewers who watch the ads do not reside —and cannot vote — in the targeted legislative district.
“It’s an extremely costly and inefficient way of reaching voters in a Senate district,” Sanderoff said Tuesday. “I think it demonstrates it’s getting a little personal.”
The ads targeting Sanchez were funded by Advance New Mexico Now, an independent expenditure committee, or super PAC, that does not have to adhere to the state’s campaign contribution limits but is barred from coordinating directly with candidates. The ads are running on at least three Albuquerque-area network-affiliated stations and are scheduled to air through the middle of next week, according to public filings.
In addition to the ads targeting Sanchez’s re-election bid, McCleskey said the group is also “engaged” in many other state legislative races, primarily through hard-hitting campaign mailers.
Advance New Mexico Now reported earlier this month having nearly $1.1 million in its bank account. Its donations include $150,000 from Paul Foster, an El Paso businessman who founded an oil refining company, and $100,000 from Anne Marion, a Texan who co-founded the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.
There are similar pro-Democratic super PACs active in this year’s New Mexico general election cycle, such as Patriot Majority New Mexico, which has received a $250,000 donation from a national labor union.
It’s unclear how those groups, or Sanchez himself, might respond to the Advance New Mexico Now ads, but Sanderoff suggested the PAC’s funding — primarily from out-of-state donors — could be a likely target.
“A $240,000 ad buy that is focused on one legislator will require a formidable response from the targeted legislator,” Sanderoff said.
Meanwhile, Sanchez’s campaign manager, Angie Poss, expressed confidence Tuesday that Senate District 29 voters won’t be swayed by the ad blitz targeting Sanchez and claimed that Martinez and McCleskey have been more focused on settling political scores than improving New Mexico.
“If they would put half as much effort into improving the economy and education as they are putting into an obsession with political foes, things in our state might be a lot different,” Poss told the Journal.
Former state Rep. Stephanie Maez also came to Sanchez’s defense Tuesday while expressing sympathy for the victims’ families, saying, “Now is not the time to exploit.”
Maez’s son, Donovan, was initially charged in connection with Jaydon Chavez-Silver’s death, but charges were dropped earlier this year.
Martinez, the state’s twoterm Republican governor, has clashed repeatedly with Sanchez since taking office in 2011, and the Governor’s Office criticized Sanchez after a special legislative session ended this month without the Senate having voted on GOP-backed crime bills.
Sanchez, a defense attorney, has defended his record and accused Martinez of having a “my way or the highway” approach to governing.